Award Winners

Karl Bendix
Chef Karl Bendix, was selected for his commitment to his work and his colleagues and for his ingenuity in problem solving. Chef Karl is able to leverage his knowledge and resources to ensure all events happen to the high standards he has set within the unit. When hosting halls for competitions or special events, it is Chef Karl who makes sure everyone has what they need, and who anticipates those needs so the events go flawlessly for all involved. An example of Chef Karl’s ingenuity came when preparing for a cooking competition. The tables provided were too low for competitors to comfortably use without straining their backs. Chef Karl identified this not only as a comfort issue, but a potential risk to the competitors. He created a set of lifts for the tables out of simple PVC pipe, which raised the working surfaces to the proper level without much more than a few dollars investment.

Additionally, Chef Karl is a silent mentor, helping Colorado State University’s team bring home the silver medal in the National Association of College and University Food Services competition. For over seven months, he devoted his personal time to the team, ensuring their success and showing his commitment to helping wherever the need arose.

Tony DeCrosta
Human Resources’ new Executive Director, Tony DeCrosta, works exceptionally well with tools, too. Tony’s set of tools are a little bit different, though. His tools are the employees he leads in his department. With the help of his senior management team, Tony has reached out to campus departments to find out how HR can be a better strategic partner.

Externally, his focus has been on linking the university’s mission and goals to the overall “people” strategy. Internally, he has focused on building and retaining the HR competencies needed to guide unit leaders and produce results. His approach is resourceful and action oriented.

Of his recent achievements, his dedication to “tearing down the walls” in HR has brought much needed communication to the departments he is responsible for – Payroll, Records, Benefits, Employee Relations, and Data Systems. If you’ve stopped by HR recently, you’re aware that the walls separating departments have literally been torn down and new doorways have been opened. These changes to the physical layout, along with the addition of a central customer service desk will help HR better serve the university.

Laurel Kubin
Laurel Kubin, provides the tools necessary for community members to ensure their financial futures. Laurel has been an Extension Family and Consumer Sciences Educator for over 39 years and has worked in Larimer County for more than 20 years. Laurel has taught money management to thousands of people, focusing on developing their skills and abilities to save money for retirement, reduce debt, and reach their financial goals. As an Extension educator, Laurel brings practical, trustworthy, and non-commercialized education to the community. She has demonstrated the effectiveness of forming partnerships to enhance financial education opportunities for youth and adults. Through her leadership, family economic stability is a key issue being addressed through Extension across Colorado.

Laurel is masterful in taking complex concepts and making them easier for all to understand. Through her engaging and experiential presentations, even people who are required to participate find themselves wanting to return to classes for more.

States her nominee “Laurel is a mentor to her Extension colleagues, serving as a role model who exhibits high ethical standards of accountability and respectful treatment of others. She is truly an AP Star.”

William Moseley
William Moseley, Senior IACUC Coordinator at RICRO, defines what it means to be a Jack-of-all-Trades. Bill is a knowledgeable expert in his field of animal welfare compliance, for which he has earned national professional certification.

Because he carefully listens to his constituents, he understands the pressures of research administration. Bill aims to make everyone’s work easier. In collaboration with ACNS, Bill has been instrumental in establishing an electronic approval process for IACUC protocols. Not satisfied with one major project, Bill spent many volunteer hours facilitating Kuali Coeus implementation.

Bill’s impact extends beyond APs. He has authored a number of tip sheets to help Faculty understand the protocol approval process. Despite creating streamlined documentation, when a researcher has questions about the approval process, Bill is hands on. He carefully and patiently walks them through the process, often visiting with researchers in their labs.

Denise Ostmeyer
Denise Ostmeyer, is a true builder, ensuring CSU staff have the training and skills necessary to be successful in their work. Within her role in the office of the Vice President for Research, Denise developed and administered a training program to aid the animal care staff. All CSU staff members taking her class passed the national certification examination. Continuing in the spirit of service and extension, Denise taught the staff at the USDA’s National Wildlife Research Center, as well, and all eight of her USDA students passed the national certification examination. She has since worked to ensure that these courses are more broadly accessible to the campus community.

Denise has worked closely with Sponsored Programs, the Research Integrity and Compliance Review Office, the Infectious Disease Research Center, and Research Services and Laboratory Animal Resources (LAR). All units have benefitted from her positive influence and mentoring skills.

Karen Sellins
Karen Sellins is a builder in the field of Animal Sciences. After serving as Interim Director for RICRO, Karen returned to basic animal research as a Research Associate in the Nutritional Biochemistry Laboratory. Karen hit the ground running!

She immediately reorganized all of the analytical equipment in the laboratory, allowing for more efficient analysis and seamless data recovery. She instituted an electronic inventory system and student hourly scheduling system that has helped to optimize labor and analytical efficiency in the laboratory. Karen implemented a maintenance schedule for all analytical instruments and performs the maintenance herself, saving the laboratory time and money.

Among Karen’s other contributions to the CSU community, she continuously works with undergraduate and graduate students in her department, helping to train them in analytical chemistry, molecular biology, immunology, and microbiology.